The forgotten epidemic

Washington Post: This year, more than a million people -- and possibly as many as 3 million -- will die from malaria. Many more will contract the disease, which causes a high fever, as well as aches and pains that can last for months.
Although malaria is a mosquito-borne disease whose causes have been well understood for more than a century, these numbers are rising. In part, this is because many millions of people still have no access either to the drugs that can help them avoid catching the disease, at least some of the time, or to the care that can ensure that it is not lethal if they do.
Mutations
But this is also because some of the drugs are not as useful as they once were. In many malarial regions, the malaria parasite has mutated and is now resistant not only to chloroquine, the cheapest anti-malarial drug, but to some of the drugs that succeeded it.
Because some malaria drugs are no longer effective, more research is needed to find new ones, as well as to find other ways to prevent the disease. There is evidence, for example, that millions of cases could be prevented if mosquito netting treated with insecticide were more widely available. A vaccine would provide the cheapest, most easily distributed prevention technique of all. Yet in recent years, malaria has not been taken as seriously as the numbers of its victims warrant, and no wonder.
Most malaria victims live in Africa, far away from the developing world -- and many people in the developing world mistakenly believe malaria has already been eliminated. As a result, funding for malaria prevention and cures is lower than it should be.
According to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, some $200 million is spent on controlling the mosquitoes that cause the disease every year, much less than the $1.5 billion to $2.5 billion needed. At the same time, some $100 million is spent on research into malaria drugs. By contrast, the National Institutes of Health spend more than $2.5 billion annually on research into the prevention and cure of AIDS.
Gates donation
Partly to reverse this trend, the Gates Foundation has announced a set of grants totaling $168 million. The donations are important in themselves, but they will do even more good if they focus the world's attention on a disease that attracts less interest than it should. Help for the victims of malaria needs to come from many sources -- the U.S. government, the European Union, the World Health Organization. The Gates donation provides a timely reminder of the size and scope of the malaria epidemic, and of how much more needs to be done about it.